The present invention relates to a new and improved construction of an apparatus for exchanging winding frames at a winding station.
In its more particular aspects, the present invention relates to a new and improved construction of an apparatus for exchanging at a winding station for printed products or the like a mobile winding frame which is to be removed from the winding station and replaced with a mobile winding frame which is to be operatively coupled at the winding station.
In the context of this disclosure it is to be understood that the term "winding station" is not limited to a structure where there is only performed a winding-up of the printed products or the like, but also covers a structure where there is unwound the printed products or the like.
Additionally, in the context of this disclosure the term "winding frame" is not to be construed in a limiting sense as strictly relating to a frame which carries a wound package which has been wound there upon, but also is intended to cover to the extent appropriate a frame which is empty, in other words from which the wound package has been previously unwound or at which a package has not yet been wound up.
Printed products which are to be stored in the form of a product package which is wound upon a winding core or mandrel instead of in the form of a conventional quadrangular-shaped stack is known in this technology, for instance, from Swiss Pat. No. 642, 602, and the cognate U.S. Pat. No. 4,438,618, granted Mar. 27, 1984. Apart from the appreciably greater storage capacity, such type of wound product package, among other things, affords the advantage that the product formation contained in the wound package, and which formation corresponds to the formation in which the printed products usually emanate from the printing press, namely an imbricated product formation, are so to speak to a certain extent "frozen" or preserved in such formation, and during the course of the unwinding of the wound product package can be readily again reestablished.
It is equally known, for instance, from Swiss Pat. No. 652, 699, and the cognate U.S. Pat. No. 4,587,790, granted May 13, 1986, to individually store in a mobile frame such wound packages together with auxiliary devices, in particular in conjunction with a supply roll for the partition or separating band or tape or the like. Wound product packages which are stored in such mobile frames can be easily handled without the requirement of performing additional operations at a finished wound package or at a finished unwound or empty winding core or mandrel. In particular, such mobile frames can be operatively coupled to winding stations, whether they be product wind-up stations or product unwinding stations, which then impart the drive power required for the winding-up or winding-off of the product package, to the auxiliary devices present at the mobile frame.
Although not directly concerned with the underlying concepts of the present invention it is assumed to be helpful if the reader has a knowledge of the subject matter of the aforementioned patent literature, particularly the U.S. Pat. No. 4,438,618, and the U.S. Pat. No. 4,587,790, so that it will be unnecessary to explain how there is formed a package composed of wound printed products, and how such wound packages are again unwound. Equally, it will then be unnecessary to explain in detail the nature of the auxiliary devices or units provided at the mobile winding frame.
The fully wound-up or complete product package has a maximum diameter which is governed by the associated winding frame.
Now, if the problem exists of storing comparatively thick or voluminous printed products in a wound product package or removing them from such wound product package, it should be evident that the number of relatively thick or voluminous printed products which can be stored in one and the same product package is relatively small in comparison to the number of thin printed products which can be stored in a product package of the same dimensions.
Accordingly, the residence or dwell time at the winding station is comparatively short for a winding frame which is provided with or which is to be provided with such a wound product package composed of thick or voluminous products, so that the standstill times of the winding station required for the exchange of the winding frames already corresponds to the order of magnitude of the residence or dwell time of the mobile frame at the winding station when operating or in fact exceeds the same. The heretofore conventionally accomplished exchange of the winding frames was undertaken manually or by means of standard transport facilities, for instance, tractors, forklift trucks or the like.